Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

November 4th, 2009

“Is it bad that I’m glad you’re not there?” Bonnie asks with a sheepish little smile when Stiles finishes reading the latest Beacon Hills Chronicle report. “I have a feeling you’d be right in the thick of things.”

Those insinuations by the reporter in New York were no longer conjecture but concrete declarations in his town’s newspaper that Kate Argent was the one who burned down the Hale house six years ago, and had come back to tie up loose ends — aka a remaining Hale and Kate's accomplices — but ended up meeting her own doom. Stiles isn’t sure if he buys it, but he’s not about to get upset that an actual murderer is taking the fall for the animal attacks.

“Maybe,” he replies with a shrug. “But we’re getting sidetracked,” Stiles reminds her and closes the news tab on his computer, getting back to the Le Mirage website. “I’m just saying it’s not a terrible idea, and we might be able to afford more spellbooks and stuff.”

Bonnie sighs and lets her body fall back on Stiles’ bed, “I don’t know… how would that even work?” Before Stiles can hazard a guess, she continues, “Wait, you have vampire friends! Why don’t we ask them if this can work?”

Stiles stares for a moment, not sure why he hadn’t thought of that before, “We can do that,” he decides, closing the computer tabs and getting up from the chair, “I’ll just text Damon we’re coming.”

“Don’t wanna surprise your sugar daddy,” Bonnie teases then ducks away from a thrown jacket, “kidding, kidding!”

The assurance that she doesn’t truly mean it doesn't keep his friend from teasing him all the way to the boarding house, and he has a niggling feeling that she just enjoys seeing him flustered. He’s almost tempted to turn the tables on her and mention that if buying someone younger an expensive gift makes a sugar daddy then she’s his sugar baby after he got her two spellbooks, but the barest mental image of that particular dynamic makes him throw out those thoughts real quick.

“Stiles,” Damon greets as he opens the door before looking a little surprised to see him with company, “Witchy. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“What do you think about selling daywalking jewelry?” Stiles immediately asks, pulling Bonnie along as he walks in. “Because I’m telling Bon we could make bank with this if we figured out the logistics. You told me some vampires would kill to have one, so they can probably afford to cough up a few thousand, right?”

Damon amusedly follows them inside, “I charge a fee for business consultations,” he jokes as they settle in the living room, the visiting duo on a couch while the vampire turns a chair slightly to face them and sits down.

“Which we’ll be able to pay if we sell magic vampire jewelry,” Stiles pokes Bonnie’s side with a pleading look.

“Is this something vampires would actually go for?” The witch asks Damon, looking doubtful. “Are there even that many of you?”

Damon tilts his head in thought, “Probably. I’ve sired a few myself, and I’ve met enough to know there’s more of us running around than most people would feel comfortable with thinking about,” he shrugs.

“I mean, there are at least four vampires in town that we know of,” Stiles points out, “Though all four of you have this stuff already, so it’s not the best demographic example.” At Bonnie’s curious look, he remembers that he hasn’t mentioned half of those vampires to her yet. “Right, you haven’t met. Remind me later to introduce you to Anna.”

“And the one who didn’t, got run out of town,” another voice adds pointedly and they see Stefan approaching from the side of the staircase leading up to the bedrooms.

Stiles, who is a little less on edge than he had been that morning after reading about what was going on in his hometown, offers him a slight shrug. “Tell you what, Lexi can have a my aunt shot you discount.”

Bonnie lets out a little choked noise he can’t tell whether it’s from humor or shock, “Liz did what?”

Stiles frowns, “Did I not tell you about my aunt being in the vampire-hating club with the rest of the Founders’ Council? I need to start writing this stuff down. Except I can’t because if Aunt Liz reads it I’m next on the getting shot list,” he adds with an annoyed huff.

There’s an awkward moment of silence when no one knows exactly what to say to that particular declaration, but they move on soon enough when Damon quips, “What about vampires you don’t know?”

“Right,” he nods to himself, “We don’t wanna hand over daywalking ability to some sicko who’s just gonna use it for evil or something.”

Stefan gives Damon a pointed look and Stiles chooses to ignore the whole thing for the sake of his sanity.

“We could veto them case by case,” Bonnie suggests and he holds himself back from fist-pumping at the sign that she’s coming around to it. “I’d need them present for the spell anyway, might as well make sure we want them to have it.”

“And when they try to threaten or kill you?” Stefan asks with a frown.

“That’s what I’m there for,” he replies with a ‘duh’ look at the teenage vampire. “I’ve got all these enhanced abilities, might as well put them to good use.”

“What about the jewelry?” Damon adds, looking a little more interested in the whole prospect. “Not a lot of cheap lapis lazuli items just lying around. Do they bring it themselves? Might drag down the price.”

Stiles scoffs, “We’re selling several lifetimes’ worth of benefit, they’ll pay what we tell them to,” he smirks, “That’s capitalism for ya.”

“You should have the first few sales,” Bonnie blurts out, to his surprise, and his questioning look earns him a smile, “To pay you back for the spellbooks you got me,” she explains. “Plus you’ll be the one talking to clients anyway, I’d rather not get involved until I need to do the spell.”

“Probably safer,” he agrees with an answering smile, “Thanks, Bon-bon.”

He wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity to refill his personal account. Being involved in the supernatural clearly isn't cheap.

November 5th, 2009

It’s still a little surreal for Stiles to find himself in the bleachers after a complete cheer routine rehearsal, especially after Caroline’s remark about the girls losing their balance on purpose sometimes so he’ll catch them. Now that he’s paying attention, he noticed Savannah blushing after a slip from the top of the pyramid and he’s pretty sure Tiki did a slightly off-angled jump on purpose — Coach Susy, who supervises two times a week during more tumbling-heavy practices, wasn’t very happy with that — so he would have to drop Jessica. The whole thing was surreal enough for him to put it out of his mind immediately after it happened, but it did happen, which… is something, he supposes.

Apparently, he’s sort of attractive to Mystic Falls girls. Who knew?

Trish, at least, seems entirely uninterested in him as she uses his side as a backrest, typing something down into her phone as Care dictates it while pacing from one side to the other in front of where most of the team is sitting. Stiles thinks he should maybe pay attention, but if it’s anything important enough he’s sure either Trish or his cousin will send a text with the relevant points.

Instead, he’s got his eye on the field where the football team is wrapping up their practice, watching Lockwood be a douche to Bance for no reason. The guy had tripped, it happens, but Mr. I’m-the-captain can’t leave well enough alone apparently. To be fair, he’s still less demeaning than Tanner ever was during the few times Stiles had watched them before the man died, but Tyler makes up for it by pushing people around instead, and their new coach — who he has yet to see out of the field, actually — doesn’t do much about it other than shake his head.

Asshole.

It doesn’t take long for their practice to end as well, and while most of the team heads to the lockers, Bance jogs up to the bleachers and nearly bumps into Caroline when she makes another sudden turn in her pacing, “Sorry, hi,” the boy greets with a sheepish smile.

“David,” Caroline greets with a narrow-eyed look and crosses her arms, “can we help you?”

Stiles isn’t sure why she’s being so curt with the guy — it’s not like he’s being rude or something — but knows better than to ask.

“Yeah, actually,” he tells the blonde, not looking very intimidated. After dealing with Tyler for more than a month, it’s no surprise. “Do you guys have like- tryouts or something?”

“They were in September,” Trish points out from behind her phone. “We had sign-up sheets up,” she adds in a ‘duh’ tone he’s heard from Caroline often enough to recognize. Damn, his little cousin is mentoring up a little mini-me. “Coach Susy mentioned it in the morning announcements.”

“Right,” David drawls, “but Stiles joined without it, didn’t he? Any chance you can make another exception?” he tries with a slightly pleading look, to their collective surprise. 

“You. Want to do cheer?” Caroline asks skeptically. “You do realize we perform at the games you’re supposed to be playing? Why the sudden interest, anyway? Your team practically bullied Elliot out of cheer and the school last year and the only reason you haven’t done the same to Stiles is because he’d kick your ass.”

Stiles opens his mouth to protest, thinks better of it, then just quips, “Probably as a last resort, but yeah.”

“Look, I wasn’t in on all that,” David assures. Stiles had heard about this Elliot kid moving away before, probably during one of Care’s rants about having no boys on her cheering team, but wasn’t aware it had been a bullying issue. “And if you had to deal with Tyler this week, you’d want out of the team too. Plus I- uh, I take dance classes, okay? And today’s routine looked cool, I could do it.”

“Two boys would add some symmetry,” Samantha points out from where she, Jess, and Kelly are in a little trio of gossip two benches above them but clearly listening in.

“He’s hot enough,” Tiki unhelpfully adds.

Caroline clears her throat and the quips cease, “You’ll have to go through Coach Susy,” she tells him in response to the request. “She knew Stiles from some videos I showed her, plus he’d helped with practice before. If she says yes, then we can work you into some routines, got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” David jokingly salutes and Stiles snorts. The guy catches on quick. “And you could help me catch up, right Stiles?” he adds with a dimpled smile.

He startles at being addressed directly and flounders for an answer — does he even have the time? — but ends up blurting out, “Sure, I- yeah. Can do.”

“Awesome, I’ll hit you up later then,” Bance says and jogs back to the field, heading to the locker room.

There’s a moment of silence as they wait for him to be out of earshot before Caroline turns on him with raised brows and an expectant look.

“What?” he frowns at the attention.

She only shakes her head with a sigh.

November 8th, 2009

Stiles exits their conversation and shoots Anna a text as he continues to eat his breakfast.

Stiles finishes his breakfast, grabs his gym bag, and gets into the Jeep before nine, which means he’s knocking on the Gilberts’ door around ten minutes later. Elena gives him a look, but he pretends not to notice — didn’t she say she wanted nothing to do with the supernatural? He’s just complying with it  — until Jeremy comes down to meet him.

They meet Anna at the gym, who proceeds to compel herself a membership — well, not for free, just so that they would ignore her age and actually give her one — and then beats the crap out of them without even using any enhanced strength.

“How do you fight like that?” Jeremy asks while panting for air after having it all knocked out of his lungs a moment earlier. “Does it come with- y’know…”

Anna snorts, “Nope, that’s all me,” she brags and motions for Stiles to come at her again. He sighs but complies since it’s pretty good training for pulling his punches. “Women, especially kids, couldn’t always walk around on their own safely,” she ducks under a swing, “still can’t, really.” She adds a moment later as Stiles’ back hits the mat. “And I learned pretty early that it’s better to do things the normal way most of the time, so I picked up a few fighting styles here and there.”

“You’re just a badass then,” Jeremy decides with a surprised little smile that Stiles spots when he taps out of the vampire’s hold.

“And don’t you forget it,” she smirks at them.

Even though they end up staying a little longer at the gym, it’s still not lunchtime when they leave, so Stiles and Anna cave to Jeremy’s insistence that they have a match without holding back. They can’t do it at the gym, of course, so Stiles drives the three of them — Anna has apparently been vampire-speeding places most of the time which just sounds like a break of the statute of secrecy waiting to happen — to the woods for that particular activity.

It’s an interesting little brawl and fortunately lasts longer than their sparring at the gym. Stiles has some size advantage — if five-ish inches counts for anything — and his strength feels decently matched if not higher, while Anna has speed — ridiculous levels of it — and slightly more flexibility on her side, as well as a lot more experience than his usual self-defense classes. He still ends up on the ground, only it’s after going through a small tree, and they call it quits when Stiles ends up breaking a finger and makes a scene about it.

It still hurts, no matter that it heals in a couple of minutes.

“That was awesome,” Jeremy informs, walking over to where Stiles is sprawled out on the ground and breathing slightly harsher than usual while Anna sits next to him with her back to a tree trunk. “How do you become a vampire, anyway?”

Stiles tilts his head up slightly, trading a look with Anna, but doesn’t stop her from answering even if he feels like the question stems from more than mere curiosity.

“You die,” she tells him point blank. “If you’ve got vampire blood in your system, you come back.”

Jeremy, who had winced at the harsh response, looks more interested once she elaborates. “So anyone can do it, there’s no way it doesn’t work?”

“None that I know of,” she shrugs.

“You could turn me then,” the kid finally gets to the point and Stiles sits up, giving the conversation more attention than before.

“You don’t want that,” Anna warns, sounding honest enough.

Jeremy scoffs, “Are you kidding me? You’ve got actual superpowers!” He motions at the two of them. “If I could do that then-” he interrupts himself and looks away.

“I’m fourteen, Jeremy.” The vampire informs in a harsher tone than is probably warranted, “I was turned against my will. I was lucky that my mom accepted me, that she let me turn her so I wouldn’t have to watch her die and leave me all alone,” her tone softens slightly at the pained look on the kid’s face, and Stiles doesn’t dare interrupt. “Not that it helped in the end, I was alone for a hundred and forty-five years until I got her back. It’s not a cakewalk to be out there on my own, especially looking the way I look. I need to compel everyone to ignore my age, or that I’ve got no guardians, and god forbid I feel like partying!” She sighs and crosses her arms. “If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t choose this.”

“Sorry,” Jeremy mutters after a moment, looking contrite enough. “I guess I wouldn’t wanna look fifteen forever either,” he offers awkwardly, looking much less eager to do whatever it took to get superpowers.

“It’s not like vampires will go extinct any time soon,” Stiles points out.

“Right,” the kid nods, “wait- could they? How do vampires even die, anyway? They’re already dead, right?”

“Okay, vampire safety one-oh-one,” Anna claps once to get their attention, and Jeremy crouches to a seat on the ground next to them. “Vampires can recover from any broken bones, and that means a broken neck or spine too, so the only ways to kill them are,” she starts counting on her fingers, “wooden stake through the heart, beheading, pulling out their heart and sunlight.”

The kid frowns and pointedly motions toward the sun, “But it’s daytime?”

“Oh, they have some nifty little jewelry with a spell that lets them walk in the sun,” Stiles butts in, “speaking of, my witchy friend has that spell now. We’re thinking of selling daywalking jewelry. Thoughts?”

“Really?” Anna asks in surprise, looking a little interested herself. “A witch will willingly make it easier for vampires to walk around? Sounds like a trap.”

Stiles frowns, “What do you mean?”

“Most witches hate us with a passion,” the vampire explains, “or at least would never help us voluntarily. They call us an abomination of nature,” she shrugs and pulls on a beaded chain he hadn’t even noticed around her neck, bringing up a necklace from under her shirt that he wouldn’t think she — or anyone under forty — would choose to wear but which does contain a blue stone in the center. “It’s how I ended up with this eyesore. If you’re serious about that, you’ve got your first client.”

“That’s one ugly necklace,” Jeremy verbalizes what they all thought at the sight of it.

The blue beads that compose most of it are in the same tone as the thumb-sized, tear-shaped flat cut of lapis lazuli in the center of the pendant, which surrounds it with at least an inch of ornate silver in the same shape. The pendant is attached to the beaded necklace by a silver bail, and the beads closest to that point are the largest, followed by slightly smaller ones and decreasing until their normal size.

It looks like something he’d see a hippie wearing, not a fashionable teenage vampire.

That witch sure didn’t like her.

Anna huffs in amusement, “Yeah, that’s why I want rid of it,” she looks at Stiles, “How much?” He only blinks in response, making her chuckle. “Come on, it’s fine. I’ve had a few centuries to learn how to invest my money, I can fork up a few thousand,” she insists, making him almost choke on air.

“I- Yeah, sure, a few thousand,” his voice goes slightly high-pitched at the end. Sure, he’d thought about it, but holy shit that’s a lot of money to make at once. “I’ll just… check with my witchy friend about it and get back to you.”

November 10th, 2009

“Stiles! I haven’t heard from you in a while,” his dad notes, and he can’t help but feel slightly guilty for it even though he hadn’t meant to go incommunicado when it comes to Beacon Hills. After enough missed calls or ignored texts — the latter mostly from old classmates — it sort of slowly faded from his mind as he focused more on things going on in Mystic Falls.

The whole supernatural issue is pretty distracting, to be fair.

“Yeah, sorry, been busy with school and stuff,” he absently shrugs, “and I thought you’d be busy too, what with everything going on- and Isaac,” Stiles adds, doing his best not to sound upset about it. His dad had yet to mention the boy after Scott told him about the whole thing.

“Good, I’m glad you’re keeping out of trouble,” his dad pointedly replies before adding in a more unsure tone, “What’s that about Isaac?”

“Scott told me he’s staying with you,” Stiles blurts out, frowning down at his lap. “I mean- not that there’s anything wrong with that, he obviously needed the help, but you could-”

“Stiles,” Dad cuts him off. “Son, Isaac stayed with me for a week, that’s all.”

“Oh,” that takes the wind right out of his sails even though he was just in the middle of a rant about how much he didn’t mind the boy in their house. “Wait, where is he then?”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” his dad berates but continues, “He’s being fostered by the Besatt couple, though he’s the last one the office will let them have in that house of theirs.”

Stiles hums in consideration, but figures that’s as good as any solution. Isaac gets to stay in town, the Besatts continue their strange habit of fostering every orphan they can find — seriously, two were his classmates before and there was one in the grade above his, not counting the ones under high school age —, and Stiles gets to keep his bedroom in Beacon Hills entirely Isaac-free for the foreseeable future. Wins all around.

“That’s nice,” he offers lightly, “And I guess there’s been no more animal attacks either?” Stiles tries, hoping for a confirmation that whatever was causing those is just as gone as the woman who took the fall for them. Or could she somehow have been responsible? He can’t be sure of anything, really.

“Not on anything alive,” His dad grunts before clearing his throat, “and you’ll be staying out of it either way, Stiles.”

“Totally, yeah,” he hastily agrees, “No animal attacks for me, no sir,” because the ones in Mystic Falls don’t really need investigating when he already knows the culprit, after all.

“Mhm,” his dad doesn’t sound entirely convinced but seems to think better than to keep harping on the same issue, “How’s life in Mystic Falls? You’re doing okay in school?”

“Yeah, it’s-” Stiles pauses, thinking about his time in the city so far. It’s strange to admit but, honestly, “it’s been pretty good actually.” He tells his dad with some surprise. He may have hated leaving Beacon Hills behind, but what he’s got going on in Mystic Falls so far… it’s not better, he won’t say that — not yet —, but it’s a good sort of different.

That thought makes the guilt gear its ugly head inside him once more, reminding him that he shouldn’t think living away from his dad is a good anything, but damn if it hasn’t felt like letting go of a load he’s been carrying since he was nine. Aunt Liz may hate vampires, which will eventually become an issue, but she does her job, takes care of the house and the bills, makes sure he and Caroline always have food in the house, checks in with them about schoolwork, and shows up to parent-teacher meetings, which is more than he can say for his dad most of the time even if he understands why things were the way they were at home.

“I miss you,” he says instead, not letting his tone falter under the weight of everything running through his mind. “I thought- maybe I could visit for Thanksgiving?”

“Stiles-” His dad starts, but he’s quick to interrupt.

“There’s no more animal attacks, right? So it should be fine,” he insists. “And if it’s about the cost, I’ve been doing some work on the side,” witchy work with Bonnie, not that he’ll be mentioning that, “I can probably pay for the flight.”

His dad hesitates, but quickly caves with a sigh, “If you’re sure, son.”

“I won’t go if I can’t afford it,” Stiles assures.

“Alright,” his dad “I’ve gotta go, okay? Take care of yourself, Stiles.”

“You too, Dad!” He pointedly returns, “No red meat, and lay off the curly-” The line is dead before he can finish speaking, “fries,” Stiles concludes to no one with a sigh.

November 20th, 2009

Stiles is lying on the couch, clicking through channels on the TV and feeling too lazy to go fetch his laptop, when the doorbell suddenly rings, startling him — he may have been a bit too immersed in the button-clicking but he’ll never admit it — to his feet as he walks over to the door. The peephole shows a guy outside, though it’s one he doesn’t recognize at first glance.

He’s got dark blond hair, light-colored eyes, and is dressed too nicely to be some sort of delivery person — not that the lack of them ordering anything isn’t enough to go by — or door-to-door salesman. He also looks vaguely familiar, so Stiles doesn’t see an issue with opening the door.

“Can I help you?” He asks the dude, looking at him expectantly.

The blond gives him an annoyingly white smile, “Stiles, right?” he asks like they should know each other.

“Do I know you?” Stiles replies, raising one brow, and the guy’s smile turns sheepish.

“Right, probably not,” he shrugs slightly and holds out a hand, “Cole Miller. I’m captain of the track team,” Cole adds and it finally clicks in Stiles’ mind. To be fair, he’s seen the guy maybe a handful of times since he’s a senior, and Stiles never did end up trying out for track and field once Care pulled him into cheering.

“Stiles, but you already know that,” he offers with some confusion as he shakes the guy’s hand. Weirdly formal, but okay. “... Can I help you?” He asks again, still not getting why the captain of the track team is on his doorstep.

“I’m picking up Caroline?” Cole tells him in more of a questioning tone than it should probably be. “We’ve got a date. She didn’t mention me?” Some confusion bleeds through his expression.

“So you’re the date!” Stiles exclaims, glad to finally have an answer to that particular question. “She wouldn’t tell me who she’s been going out with, I wonder why,” he narrows his eyes at the guy.

“So you wouldn’t do this,” his cousin is suddenly next to him, painfully digging an elbow into his side, “I like Cole, be nice.” She looks at her date next, “I’m almost ready, give me two minutes.”

“I’m always nice!” Stiles protests while Cole assures Caroline that he’s the one who’s early and she can take her time. “She says two minutes, it’s probably ten,” he tells the blond once his cousin is out of earshot, “want a water or something?”

“Sure,” Cole agrees easily enough and Stiles watches as he crosses the doorway with no issue and follows him to the kitchen.

Not a vampire then. Good.

“I guess this is where I say that if you hurt her I’ll hurt you,” Stiles comments a minute later and holds back a chuckle as Cole nearly chokes on a gulp of water, “but Care packs a mean kick, she can do all the hurting herself,” he finishes with a smirk as the blond nods.

He spots a blur in his peripheral vision and ducks right as Caroline’s purse comes sailing over where his head was a moment before, “leave him alone,” she chides as she crosses the kitchen to get her purse back from the floor. “Come on, we still need to get snacks before the movie.”

“Have fun,” he tells her honestly before adding the necessary reminder, “Be back before ten unless you want the Sheriff asking questions.”

November 24th, 2009

They’re once again using their self-study history period — he’s not surprised it’s proving difficult to find a substitute history teacher — as gossip hour and Stiles only realizes he hasn’t told the girls about his plans when Bonnie asks what everyone is doing for Thanksgiving.

“Uh, I’m actually flying to Beacon Hills tonight,” he tells them, to Elena and Bonnie’s surprise since Caroline already knew about it from when he mentioned it to Aunt Liz. His aunt had been all for it and he suspects she just wants him out of reach of the vampire who’s still supposedly on the loose even though there haven’t been any more animal attacks since way before Lexi fled town. “I’ll be back on Sunday morning if you guys want to do anything before class starts again.”

This reminds him to let Jeremy know he won’t be back in time for their next gym day, and Stiles sends him a quick text before he can forget about it again.

“I still wish I could go with you,” Caroline complains not for the first time with a pout.

“Your mom said she’ll think about letting you go with me on winter break,” Stiles reminds his cousin before she gets too sulky about it. “Besides, you get some mother-daughter time without me hanging around for a change.”

The blonde rolls her eyes but gives him a small thankful smile.

“Dad’s busy, as usual, so I’ll be with Grams,” Bonnie announces, successfully moving the conversation along, and when Elena mentions not being sure of any plans, they show her the appropriate sympathy.

Stiles remembers not even making note of holidays for a while after his mom passed, not wanting to commemorate anything without her — not wanting to find out if his dad was even going to show up without mom there — and it’s not as if Elena being seventeen makes her loss any easier.

Grief, he’s learned, doesn’t just go away when you want it to.

“I feel like you’ve been here enough to earn a copy of the key by now,” Damon points out while Stiles lounges on the library’s couch. He came to let the vampire know he’d be leaving for a few days and ended up bumping into Zach, who looked disapproving — for some unknown reason, presumably his friendship with Damon if he had to take a guess — but still let him wait inside for the vampire to get back home.

“It’s cute that you think I don’t already have one,” Stiles quips, not entirely lying. To be fair, he has copies of the keys to a lot of places he probably shouldn’t have the keys to. In his defense, he never knows when he might need them! Well, now he might be able to just break through the door, but that’s the furthest thing from subtle so he’ll be keeping his copies, thank you very much.

“You think I’m cute?” The vampire teases with a smirk as he drops on the couch, laying his head on Stiles’ lap — right on top of the book he’s trying to read — and mockingly fluttering his eyelashes.

“That’s all you got out of that?” He asks with an amused huff, pushing Damon’s head away for long enough to pull the book — one of the cookbooks he’d found in here that one time — from under it and place it to the side.

“That’s the part I care about,” is the reply he gets followed by a flirty wink, “What brings you here this time?”

“I’m flying out for Thanksgiving,” Stiles replies, absently brushing his fingers through Damon’s hair and only barely noticing the vampire tense for a moment.  He’s sat with the girls like this enough times for it to be pretty much an automatic reaction to a head on his lap. “Stopped by to let you know, and figured I could check these books for any healthy recipes I can make for my dad while I’m there.”

“Beacon Hills?” The vampire asks after a moment of thought, probably to remember where Stiles mentioned coming from before.

“Yep,” He nods. “They’ve been having some weird animal attacks too, started just before I moved here,” Stiles adds because he’s been itching to discuss this with someone and his usual partner in crime is currently girl-dumb. “They’ve all been pinned on one Kate Argent who apparently burned down one of the town’s oldest families six years ago and allegedly got killed by the same animal she was setting on people, but- unless this Argent woman turns into a bear-sized supernatural monster, I don’t think she did it.” After a small pause, he clarifies, “the animal attacks, I mean. The whole murder by fire was definitely on her though, so being mauled to death was the least she deserved either way.” at Damon’s raised brows, he adds, “Even if they somehow had it coming, which I find it hard to imagine, there were kids in that house.”

“Fair enough,” the vampire agrees. “So you’re what, going back to play detective for the week?”

“And to see my dad,” Stiles corrects, “and Scott.”

“Ah, the one who forgot you existed to trail after a skirt,” Damon says after feigning trying to remember who that is, and it earns him a chastising flick to the side of the head. “Hey!”

“Scott has his moments,” he defends, not sure if trying to convince his vampire friend or himself.

“If you say so,” Damon shrugs. “But you better bring me a souvenir.”

Stiles snorts, “Sure, I’ll get you a famous Beacon Hills keychain or something.”

“I’m gonna miss you,” Care tells him as she hugs him right outside the airport where she’s dropping him off since Aunt Liz is still at work. It’s not any different from every time he’s left after spending his breaks in Mystic Falls, but it feels a bit much for the little time he’ll be spending away.

“I’ll be back in four days,” Stiles reminds her and she lets go of him with a sheepish grin.

“I keep forgetting you live here now and aren’t leaving for months,” his cousin admits and he smiles slightly, “Alright, time to go before you miss your flight!”

Stiles snorts at the quick mood swing, “Going, going,” he grabs his suitcase and smiles at her, “I’ll miss you too, don’t go on too many dates while I’m gone!”

“Leave already!” He hears her yell at his back over his laughter.